Barry Lewin Wins Liffey Descent

This just in from Barry Lewin - who won the Liffey Descent in Ireland on his first attempt. He switches back to Surf Skis as he heads to the Caribbean to take part in the Souliga Challenge. Next up for Barry is the US Champs where he'll take on the likes of Greg Barton, Oscar Chalupsky, Zsolt Zsadovski, Daryl Bartho...

Barry writes:

I arrived in Dublin on Thursday and was lucky to hook up with fellow South Africans Herman Chalupsky and Dave Reese who had offered me a couch to sleep on for my 4 day stay in Dublin. It was an awesome site to see a car drive through the airport with 2 surfskis on the roof as it made me feel almost at home for a second. They were social paddlers racing a k3 with Stephen Froesea, local laddy who would be our tour guide for our stay.

The social paddlers waisted no time in driving me straight to the Guinness factory for a great tour and my first pint. This country is filled with character and I really enjoyed the tradition they have here. The Liffey descent is a great tradition of the city where any paddle craft are allowed - drawing 850 people to take on the raging river once a year with a nice water release.

The race went really well, I had an OK start and worked my way to the front after about 500m, the first weir is only 1km into the race so the goal was to be leading into it. I hit a great line through the weir giving me a small lead. Seeing the gap I put my head down and went for it, always take doors when they open like that. Slowly over the next 10km I opened the lead to 2 and a half min cruising through the many weirs on the long 28km course.

Half way though the race the race crosses a very small dam and this was the first time I could see how far I was ahead. The next paddler was in sight and was sitting on a double's wave that had taken a swim at the first weir. This was a danger as I was on my own and had no help from the boats around me. I made sure I ran the portage hard so I didn't loose time but the double pulled Graham O'Regan right up to me and I had to dig deep near the end to hold them off over the last 2km of the race.

I could see them coming from behind and once I was past the last weir I knew I only had a sprint to the finish just downriver, pulled hard and finished 100m ahead of them, relief that I had held out and then excitement that i had won my first Liffey dexcent on my first outing in a great time of 1h48min42sec! Wahooooo!

Other South Africans doing the race were Joe Kearney who ended up 10th in the singles, Ken Colins and Jason Golding were 3rd in the doubles and the social K3 finishing with no hassles. The race has some really big weirs and rivals any race back home with 4 of them as high as Cradock on the fish. The river is narrow and fast flowing keeping you on your toes on some sharp bends. A awesome challenge for any paddler and I will certainly be back to take it on again. I hope to send some photos soon of the action.

I fly back to London tomorrow for some training at Richmond canoe club and then on the the Caribbean on Thursday. Race 2 of the trip will be on the 23rd of September from St Barts to St Maarten.

There was something in the paper this morning sent out my my media agency, see the artical at www.gameplanmedia.co.za/Lewin/lewin0701.html and there will be another press release on www.gameplanmedia.co.za by Monday! Check it out!


Way to go Barry!